South Africa News Archives - Page 5 of 72

Closing SA’s IT skills gap and reducing off-shore investment ‘requires a shift in thinking’

25Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Closing SA’s IT skills gap and reducing off-shore investment ‘requires a shift in thinking’

redAcademy MD Jessica Hawkey is driven by a passion to drive positive impact in SA CAPE TOWN – Honoured as Top Tech Innovator at the 2024 Wired4Women awards, redAcademy founder and MD Jessica Hawkey is driven by an unrelenting drive to work towards closing the skills gap in South Africa. In doing this, she hopes to play a part in shifting the scales in the highly imbalanced ecosystem of off-shoring work, essentially taking billions of rands out of the economy so desperately in need of growth impetus. Change requires a shift in thinking, but she says this shift is already occurring. Hawkey founded redAcademy to create a skilled pipeline of IT talent for businesses, trained specifically for unique needs within businesses. The young people are work ready in a year because of a carefully cur...

24Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Tech

Security, Ethics and Opportunity – AI in South Africa

Jacques du Bruyn, Managing Director at Flume Digital Marketing Don’t panic – AI isn’t coming for your job. What it is doing is delivering new opportunities, creating new jobs and making work simpler for millions of people. Like the viral quote from Joanna Maciejewska about wanting AI to do the laundry and dishes so she can work on art, rather than having it create art and writing so she can do the housework – which has been interpreted many ways – the opportunity can work both ways. Take the Gap You can work hard to understand how AI operates and get to the front of the Prompt Engineer queue, capitalising on an opportunity to be the person who is able to prompt AI to deliver the specific result – an image, music, video, research or copy – that a client needs. You can also use AI to del...

A global blueprint for good news and constructive journalism – South Africa leading with passion and purpose

24Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

A global blueprint for good news and constructive journalism – South Africa leading with passion and purpose

By: Brent Lindeque Newsrooms worldwide are battling. Publications are closing down. Online platforms are becoming “noisy” with irrelevant adverts or almost entirely inaccessible because of paywalls. Readership is dropping. But why? Well, there are many reasons, but the two that stood out at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum (DW Media Forum) were a growing despondency to the barrage of negative news that feels almost relentless and a breakdown of trust between readers and brands. Over 1,500 participants and over 140 speakers from more than 120 countries around the world recently gathered in Bonn, Germany, to attend the conference. This event, which serves as a crucial platform for networking, knowledge exchange, and collaboration, covered a wide range of topics, including journali...

21Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Business, South Africa News

At the coalface of change

By Arjen de Bruin, Group CEO at OIM Consulting With Coal & Energy Transition Day taking place this month, the discussion around sustainability and coal mining ramps up, as the sector grapples with the desire and responsibility to lower its carbon footprint – but not lose its very reason for existence. Green gung-ho I would wager that all shareholders across every mining or manufacturing company in South Africa understand the onus on their business to ‘go green’; a broad term that essentially encompasses lowering one’s carbon footprint, seeking and utilising renewable energy sources, environmental conservation, recycling, waste reduction and more. Yet in recent times, our initial ‘green gung-ho’ seems to have slowed down. We still want to do this, but now we’re realising that the ...

Championing Innovation, Inclusivity, and Sustainability in Air Travel

19Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Africa Travel, African News, Business, South Africa News

Championing Innovation, Inclusivity, and Sustainability in Air Travel

Marc Harding, Country Manager- South Africa, Virgin Atlantic Air travel is far more than merely transporting people from one destination to another; it's about the magic that happens in between and the reason for the journey itself. Whether it’s reuniting with family, making those bucket list dreams come true, or soaking in new cultures, air travel is all about those unforgettable moments. Right now, aviation is at a crossroads with more people flying, the planet heating up, and inclusivity taking centre stage. At Virgin Atlantic, as we toast to our fabulous 40th anniversary, we're doubling down on innovation, inclusivity, and sustainability. These aren’t just buzzwords for us—they're critical pillars that have been and will continue to be our focus moving forward. Innovating the Skies ...

16Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Energy, South Africa News

FORTIS X has launched Africa’s first biodegradable and recyclable plant-based packaging

An estimated 122 million tons of waste is produced annually in South Africa, however only 10% of it is recycled, with the other 90% discarded in landfills; and a mere 12,9% of all metropolitan households in South Africa claim to recycle their waste. This is the bleak reality we face this Plastic Free July®, a month where millions of people worldwide are inspired by this year’s theme to take “small steps and make a big difference’”, as part of the global solution to halt the use of single-use plastic. The combination of Africa’s growing population and rapid urbanisation is attributed to the rise of single-use plastic and sadly, the plastic tap isn’t close to running dry. Not only is plastic litter blamed for killing more than 100,000 sea mammals and turtles and 1 million birds annually...

16Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Medicine, South Africa News

MMH & Partners Africa develops three-tiered response plan to eradicate & prevent continued spread of mpox virus in SA

The executive leadership team of MMH & Partners Africa can officially confirm that the local healthcare consultancy has developed a three-tiered response plan to eradicate and prevent the continued spread of the mpox virus in South Africa. The response plan emphasizes the urgent need for a consolidated effort between healthcare leaders, private sector stakeholders, and public entities to address this public health crisis effectively. The plan highlights three key pillars: Diagnostics (Detection), Therapeutics (Treatment), and Vaccines (Prevention). Each strategic pillar aims to emphasise the action steps that will be required to effectively prevent the needless loss of life as a result of the mpox outbreak across different regions in Africa. Pillar 1: Upscale Local Laboratory Capacit...

16Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News

Digital innovation agency Specno launches Johannesburg’s very first Founders Den event for young founders, investors & tech enthusiasts

Specno is excited to confirm the announcement that its bi-annual Founders Den event will be taking place in Johannesburg later this month. The gathering, which usually takes place in Cape Town, aims to shape the future of business in South Africa, by bringing together a number of visionary entrepreneurs, tech industry leaders, and investors. Attendees will gain valuable industry insights, make meaningful connections, and be inspired by the success stories of other South African entrepreneurs. The event promises an excellent opportunity for representatives of the media to capture stories of innovation and entrepreneurship in our country today. Speakers include Alex Thomson (Co-Founder of Naked Insurance), Rajiv Daya (Head of Investment at Next176 from Old Mutual) and Priaash Ramadeen (Co-...

16Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

South Africa News, Startups

Africas #1 Web3 startup, Momint, secures $50,000 grant from DFINITY Foundation: local startup positions itself for further global expansion

Momint, Africa’s leading Web3 platform based in South Africa, has secured a $50,000 grant from the DFINITY Foundation, a Swiss non-profit organization known for having the largest blockchain R&D team globally. The grant was obtained through the Internet Computer Protocol (ICP) Hub of Southern Africa, also known as Mzansi Web3 (MW3), which is funded by DFINITY. Momint will use the grant to integrate the ICP blockchain towards enhancing its business operations. This strategic move aims to solidify Momint’s global expansion efforts, positioning the local startup to gain, retain, and expand its market share in today’s highly competitive international digital economy. MW3 was established as the ICP hub in Southern Africa to offer the region a purposeful gateway to the world of decentraliz...

Fintech’s transformative potential: Empower customers through self-education

9Jul

By Africa BusinessNo Comments

Fintech, Malawi News, South Africa News

Fintech’s transformative potential: Empower customers through self-education

The most powerful thing a fintech can do is enable its customers to educate themselves, says Mukuru CEO, Andy Jury. He says formalised financial education obviously plays a crucial role in a fintech’s business, but customers that trust and repeatedly use a new product or service, such as a digital store of money, go through a natural learning process and are then more comfortable being exposed to more sophisticated products. Mukuru, which is a next-generation financial services provider, started out as a remittance company and has evolved into a platform with a suite of different financial products and services. Jury says that by empowering its customers to teach themselves, Mukuru has enabled many thousands of unbanked and underserved people to access products and services from which th...